American Lion
by dabbling
Summary: Mulder & Scully go to Colorado to investigate reported sightings of Panthera Atrox. This takes place somewhere around season 3.
1. Chapter 1

American Lion

Chapter 1

Mulder sat by the hospital bed, tie off, shirt unbuttoned showing his white t-shirt beneath. There were still spots of dried blood on his clothing, but his hands were now clean. Scully slept fitfully, some of her bandages bled through- the one on her neck, and on her chest. Under the sheets he knew there were more bandages, but he was glad not to see them. A unit of blood hung half-empty on the pole at her bedside, slowly but surely restoring color to her pallid skin.

_ It's been whispered about the office that there's something to my relationship with Scully, something more than just colleagues. We've both caught wind of these rumors, and have chosen to ignore them, but at times like this, when one's mind delves into deep thought, it is inevitable to find oneself ruminating on what appears to be even the most insignificant of fleeting thoughts._

_ She is my best friend, of that I have no doubt. Yet she is certainly more than just a friend. We are not, never have been lovers, but it would be dishonest to say I've never entertained that notion. Our relationship is more than that. I suppose having lost my sister I could be accused of creating a relationship with Scully to emulate what I imagine an adult relationship with Samantha might have been, but that doesn't fit quite right either. There is no other person in my life who commands my trust, my loyalty, my concern in the way Scully does._

_ I love her. I know this in the depths of my heart to be true, but it is a purely platonic love. Still, she feels closer to me than a sister. We were raised under very different circumstances, with different values, aspirations, and ultimately motivations, and yet it is those very differences which seem to bind us so closely together._

Scully turned her head ever so slightly, and her faced screwed up with the pain. The doctors had painstakingly stitched her back together and even the regular doses of morphine could not completely alleviate her suffering. Mulder touched her shoulder gently with concern, and waited for her to drift back to sleep.

_ It is times like these that bring forth innumerable emotions within me. I cannot help but feel ashamed… ashamed that I have brought this suffering upon her, by the very nature of my insatiable quest for truth. _

The nurse stepped in, with a cart full of dressings, and Mulder glanced earnestly at his partner once more before stepping out of the room. He ambled sadly to the waiting room at the end of the hall, and pulled out his cell phone.

Scully's mother had been busy this summer. Ever since Melissa's death she had taken on more and more responsibility in the raising of her grandson, and summers were when she was needed most. He pushed the button in memory on his cell and listened while the ten tones sang in his ear. It barely rang once before he heard her urgent response.

"Fox?"

"Hi Mrs. Scully," he said quietly. "She's still doing well, sleeping off the pain meds, but there's no sign of infection right now, and her color is a little better."

"That's good news. Have you spoken to her yet?"

His face bore an expression between a wince and a smile. "Not yet."

"God, I wish I could be there, Fox. You tell her I love her."

"Yes, ma'am," he said and then cleared his throat.

"Fox?"

"Hmm?" he replied.

"Thank you. You're a good friend."

Her words felt like a dagger in his heart, but he knew that was not her intention. "I'll call again later, Mrs. Scully. Bye." He slipped the phone back in his pocket and stood in front of the window, counting the parallel lines of the venetian blinds with his fingertip.

* * *

A/N This is my first attempt at Xfiles fic, and I hope I can pull it off! This story is complete in my mind, but not yet on paper. I foresee a lot of short chapters. If it goes well, I may attempt more! Reviews are always appreciated and help me remain motivated to write more. Thanks!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

El Paso County, Colorado

One Week Earlier

"Panthera Atrox," Mulder explained from the driver's seat as he spit sunflower shells into a cup. "The American Lion, thought to have gone extinct during the Pleistocene period. Yet there have been sightings reported with some regularity for at least the last 150 years."

Scully listened quietly, but could not help but raise one skeptical eyebrow.

"And what's even more interesting is that the early reports of sightings describe the animal as some kind of lion/tiger hybrid. Kind of like an African lion, but with stripes near its hind quarters like a Bengal tiger."

He glanced at her, saw that she was giving him 'that look.' After a minute of complete silence, realizing the 'look' was still in play; he grinned and added, "That's nothing. Wait till I tell you the kangaroo stories."

His jibe worked. She could not contain herself any longer. "Mulder, do you believe every ridiculous thing you read?"

"Well, not everything." He popped more sunflower seeds in his mouth. "We do have the word of three credible witnesses."

"Who witnessed the creature from a distance of at least 30 meters, in evening light."

"One was the county sheriff!" He objected.

"Who was on vacation and had been drinking," she countered. "Most likely, they saw a Puma, which are common in mountainous areas of the American West."

The twinkle in his eye made her smile. "Most likely," he agreed. "But summer in Colorado _is_ supposed to be beautiful."

* * *

The car pulled up to a ranch-style house at the edge of a barbed wire fence. It encircled a field of what looked like nothing more than weeds, but the cows munched happily away at the hardy plants. Scully waited for Mulder to come around from his side of the car and they approached the door together.

"Mulder, and Scully, FBI," He said by way of introduction.

The Sheriff nodded, and invited them in. "I've been expecting you. Glad they sent y'all out here to verify what we saw."

'The look' reappeared on Scully's face briefly, and Mulder smiled as they were led to a hideous green couch. The floor had plastic runners along the high-traffic areas.

Sheriff Conner looked apologetic. "My wife does the decorating," he explained. He took an 8 X 10 photograph out of the side table drawer and handed it to Mulder. "Not the clearest shot, but you can see it's a lion."

Mulder passed the photograph to Scully, who frowned at the grainy resolution.

"We were camping out by the creek for the weekend, and my nephew's dogs just went crazy barking. We looked around, but didn't see no sign of anything. They took off running, and only one come back that night, so the next day we set off to look for it, figurin' it got hurt or something. We found what was left of him in a gully, and then we saw this," he pointed to the picture, "that evening."

"It ate your dog?" Scully asked.

"Been in a drought for the last year, ain't much deer or elk to be found right now. I reckon it was hungry."

"Why are you so convinced this isn't a mountain lion?" She asked.

"Well, it's that tail. Look how it's up in the air like that. A mountain lion lays low, always ready to stalk. They don't do that with their tails."

* * *

Scully typed her notes for the day on her laptop computer and closed it shut. She sat back on the hotel bed and took a long drink of her soda, flipping channels on the tv. Her phone rang. "Hello?" She said.

"The tail thing checks out. There's an animal rescue in Northern Colorado, specializes in big cats. She verified what the Sheriff said."

"I still don't buy it, Mulder. It's possibly a mountain lion with an injury or deformity that caused its tail to lift like that. It's not enough to go on."

"I knew you would say that. Sheriff Conner called me earlier. There are more pictures. From yesterday."

"Yesterday?"

"Some kids were out four wheeling in the mountains, they had a run-in. We'll check it out in the morning."

"See you at 6," She grinned, glancing at the clock. It had 12:49 on its display.

"7," he said.

"6:30," she countered.

"There's no place to get breakfast at that hour, he protested."

"Well, maybe your witnesses will give you a donut with some coffee," she said, and hung up.

* * *

A/N If you've read "Mysterious America" by Loren Coleman, you'll get the kangaroo reference... and learn a lot about panthera atrox, too!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The agents sat in a cramped diner booth with 3 healthy teenage boys. The three had a hard time allowing each other time to finish a sentence.

"And then it jumped down off a rock, looked just like my grandma's cat jumping down off the bookcase—"

"Then we lost sight of it for a few minutes 'cause it was crouched down in the weeds. Bradley –"

"I could see what it was after from where I was standing. It was stalking a little deer family, just three of 'em that were grazing in a little clearing."

"Man, it jumped on that deer so fast—"

"You could hear the bones crunch when it bit down."

"It was scary, but I couldn't stop looking!"

Mulder set his coffee cup down. "In these pictures, it doesn't appear to have a mane." He held up a picture for the boys to see. "The last picture we saw you could clearly see a mane."

"Pumas don't have manes. How do you know it wasn't a Puma?" asked Scully.

The boy named Zach looked closely at her. "I've seen a few mountain lions on our ranch. This wasn't no mountain lion. It was a lot bigger. And the head… the head was…" He held out his hands as a demonstration of the size of the animal's head.

* * *

Memorial Hospital

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Present Day

"Scully?" Mulder moved closer, searching her quivering lips for words, but they only muttered, and then were still. He sat back with a sigh and scratched the back of his head. As his eyes traced over her features again, he tried to shake the image of the animal as its heavy claws drew that wretched scream from her lips.

_ There has been no happy announcement of the discovery of a new species, even though the carcass of the very creature that nearly killed her was retrieved by authorities. The other animal escaped capture, of that I am sure. My focus had been on Dana, and I was unable to admire it for more than a split second, as my hands pressed down against her wounds to slow the bleeding._

_ Something is amiss. There should be no reason to withhold the discovery of a new species… or rather an old species once thought extinct. _

His eyes turned outward from his thoughts again, and with folded hands, he pressed his thumbs against his bottom lip as he studied her face once again. He needed to find out why the story was being buried, but he needed more to talk to her, to apologize…to be forgiven.

* * *

El Paso County, Colorado

5 days earlier

"Mulder, I still see nothing here that indicates your Panthera Whatever has made a comeback. All of these photos, all of these sightings can be attributed to your basic, run of the mill cougar." Scully shook her head as she flipped through the photographs one more time.

"Panthera Whatever is a stealthy critter," Mulder grinned. "The ninja of the feline world." As an accent, he spit two sunflower shells into a paper cup.

"Do you have some kind of evidence? Because, as much fun as this is, I think I'd rather be home with a bottle of wine and a good movie right now."

"Scully… crisp mountain air," he gestured to the landscape before she interrupted him.

"The fragrance of fresh cow manure," she muttered.

"Beautiful scenery…" He gave her a glance, and she shrugged. "Rustic meals," he said, spitting into his cup again. She rolled her eyes. "Great company."

"You're a Neanderthal, Mulder. Look at yourself. Unshaven, eating with your fingers… you've been wearing the same clothes for two days. Have you at least put on clean underwear?"

He set the cup of shells in the cup holder, slowing the car as he began to pull over. "I don't know," he muttered. "Let's find out."

"Mulder!"

He laughed and got the car back on the road. "Bear with me, Scully. If we don't have something by tomorrow, I'll treat you to the wine and the movie."

"Deal."

* * *

The Department of Fish & Game was as rustic as anyplace else in the county. They parked the car next to an old khaki colored suburban, equal parts mud and paint. The office was an old trailer that had the addition of a wooden slat porch with a hitching rail in front of it. Before their feet hit the wood of the porch, a uniformed man came out to greet them. "Howdy," he said.

Mulder grinned at Scully, who pasted her professional look on her face and nodded that he keep moving. "Howdy," Mulder replied. "I'm Agent Mulder, this is Agent Scully."

The ranger nodded. "I've been expecting you. Care for a cup of Joe?"

"That sounds good," Mulder said. He and Scully followed the man inside.

"You've heard about these 'lion' sightings, Ranger Wilkins?"

"Yeah, yeah…" he poured two cups of coffee from a Mr. Coffee that looked to be older than Dana. "We get a report or two every summer, but this year there have been more than usual."

"Every summer?"

The ranger smiled. He offered them a seat, and the three sat in a makeshift circle of mismatched office chairs. "Oh, you know, it's a popular story around here. Always comes back to Mountain Lions."

Scully gave Mulder an 'I told you so' look.

"Sheriff Conner was pretty convinced it wasn't a mountain lion." Mulder retrieved a photo from a folder he was carrying. "And in this photograph, the animal appears to have a mane."

Ranger Wilkins looked at the photo with amusement. "If it weren't for the fact that I saw it myself, I'd still be saying it, too."

"You saw this creature?" Scully asked, setting her coffee down as she leaned forward.

The ranger nodded. "Night before last." He took a long, thoughtful sip of his java and glanced at each detective before continuing. "I still say it's a mountain lion, though. Just one that's a little different."

"Different? How different?" Mulder asked.

"You know, the way I see it, if people can be so different from each other, why not animals? We have dwarfs and giants and birth defects and scars. Who's to say mountain lions can't be just as diverse?"

Again, Scully met Mulder's gaze. Mulder held his own, speaking even as he met her level stare. "What exactly did you see, Ranger?"

"I was doing my nightly run, you know, checking for illegal campers out off the forestry roads. Hunters'll do that sometimes. My headlights caught some eyes. I killed the engine and coasted to a stop, grabbed my flashlight, and my rifle for good measure. I got out of the truck and kind of crept in the direction I'd seen the eye-glare."

He drank his coffee again. "It hadn't moved an inch since I drove by it. I managed to get the beam of light to fall on it before it jumped down off a rock and slunk back into the woods."

He cleared his throat and finished off the coffee. "It was the biggest lion I ever saw. And this one had a mane."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"You say it had a mane, but you still say it was a mountain lion?" Mulder asked.

"Agent Mulder, have you ever been to a circus?"

"Many times."

"Ever seen a bearded lady?"

"Many times. I even rode the bus with a woman in Chicago who put my own beard to shame."

The ranger shrugged. "Maybe this lion just had that kind of a medical issue."

Dana was smirking at Fox. "Was there anything else about the creature you saw that would set it apart from a typical mountain lion?" she asked.

"Just his size. He was twice as big as the biggest cougar I've ever seen before."

"And I suppose you're going to say this was a giant, bearded lady cougar."

"Something like that. Only this one was no lady."

"All right, so how do we go about catching it?"

"Catching it?" The ranger asked. "Why would you want to catch it?"

Mulder leaned in this time. "Ranger Wilkins, if this is a cougar with all these medical anomalies, it should be studied. Perhaps something in the environment: pesticides, factory waste, global warming… is causing the problem. We may be able to save a species from extinction."

"You want to catch it so it can live in a zoo somewhere and be poked and prodded to death?"

"If it will save the other mountain lions. Wouldn't you allow scientists to study you if there were a chance you could save your children from some kind of suffering?"

Wilkins refilled his coffee and walked over to stare out the window. "Come on out back," he finally said.

The two agents followed him through the tight confines of the office and out the back door. The back of the trailer had a wooden deck attached to it. Ranger Wilkins walked down the wooden steps and out to a series of holding pens in the back yard. As he approached one, a cougar hissed at him and swiped its paw at the fence before leaping back to hide in the corner of the fenced area.

"You're lucky I've got this lady today," Wilkins said. "I was going to release her yesterday, but the college called and wanted to do their thing. They put her out and gave her an exam, then they tagged her so they can try and track her movements over the next year. I'm letting her recover today, and I'll release her in the mountains tomorrow."

Mulder was already close to the fence, looking at the cat with longing eyes. Dana approached warily, but came very close to the chain link, as well.

"How big is she?" Mulder asked.

"This one is six feet long. Weighs 216, all muscle." Wilkins smiled, admiring the fierce animal. "Look at the size of her claws. And that's when they're receded!"

Dana's eyes grew wide as she saw the size of the animal's nails, and imagined the damage they could do.

"Now you look at her, and you think about these reports coming in. The animals that have been sighted are supposedly larger than her. This cat could bring down a bull elk. The ones people are talking about could do that without breaking a sweat."

Mulder leaned his forehead against the fence, and the cat rocked silently, sizing him up. "You're comfortable with the knowledge that a creature, or creatures, twice the size of this one are roaming free in these mountains?" Mulder asked.

The ranger smiled. "Where else should they be?" he asked. Wilkins hooked his thumbs into his pants and pulled them up. "If we start getting clear photos and videos, or if somebody manages to catch one without resorting to extreme measures, then I'll know the population is large enough we have something to worry about. Until then, as far as I'm concerned, it's just another puma."

* * *

Back in the car, Scully studied Mulder's face as he pulled back onto the road. "I suppose you're encouraged by that," she said.

"He believes, Scully. You know it, whether or not you choose to admit it."

"My work isn't based on my beliefs, Mulder, you know that."

"You're not going to be satisfied without hard evidence."

"Neither should you."

"Right," he said, frowning.

"Right," she said, with a slight smirk. Her lips flattened and she cast her eyes at the road as he swayed in the lane while digging his hand into his front pocket. "Mulder, what are you-?!"

"We're going hunting, Scully. Did you bring your Bowie knife?" Mulder tossed the folded paper into her lap.

Carefully, she unfolded the note. Inside was a hand-drawn map and a set of coordinates. The handwriting at the bottom had a left-handed slant, and warned them to beware and take precautions against the wild animal should they encounter it.

"Mulder, where did you get this?"

"Sheriff Conner. He said he'd come along with us, but he got held up by a list of ailments longer than my left leg."

"Mulder…"

It was her most skeptical tone. He turned on his boyish charm, and gave her his best. With a slightly pouty smile, he said, "Scully…?"

She sighed. "Oh, all right. But let's get decked out for hiking, all right? I don't want to ruin this suit."

His smile showed all of his teeth. "Whatever you say, Scully!"


End file.
